Day 6 – More of the ‘roids!

Wow, day three and the last of the steroids. Corr my Neurologist would be having a hissy fit if he knew – he never gave me anything of the sort, no matter how much I pleaded.

How do I feel, actually not too different! A little bit extra jittery, and needing to go to the loo a bit more, and urgently. But comfortable. Twice an evening I’ve been given late shots of G-CSF, a drug that tells the stem cells to leave my bone marrow and enter my blood stream. And largely still don’t feel any different. No bone pain which I’d heard of, but I’m laid out on my bed, just writing and editing on my laptop and perfectly happy.

Life, work and fundraising has just been so manic before leaving for Russia. Currently just being sat here relaxing I couldn’t be happier. It actually feels a little Holiday-esque. I’m so well looked after, complete with smiles and there is sooo much food to eat. Though I’ll talk about food very soon.

Yesterday was much of the same, steroids and jabs, which gave me a nice few hours out of the hospital with Jen to enjoy before she leaves to return home today. We grabbed something to eat, chatted and slowly walked back.

As we approached the hospital this happened.

(Taken from Jen’s Facebook)
On our walk back from the restaurant we were stopped by an elderly gentleman outside the hospital who had, at first, walked by us looking at Alex struggling to walk… He then turned around to walk back to us… He stopped Alex and with no English spoken he took his hand and started gesturing to Alex’s legs, stick and then to above… It was clear, from the tears in his eyes, that he was wishing good things for Alex… Lovely that, from a city that has seemed so intimidating, we were wished well from a total stranger… Now you wouldn’t get that in London!

It was a lovely moment, just a shame we couldn’t understand him fully.

So Jen has left to go back home for a few weeks. I don’t do tears, but once she left I couldn’t help it this time. There’s no one better! I’m pleased that Jen’s going home, time will fly much quicker now for her and I’ll be home before she knows it.

I’m sure it’ll look lovely when it’s finished!

Besides I did spend a night in her hotel and the construction outside was so noisy, and hardly made for a bright awakening in the morning.

Like the hotel, I had equally been finding it hard to sleep in the hospital too, certainly not because of any noise, it’s lovely and peaceful here. But I guess there are the thought’s about the treatment, what’s to come afterwards and just being in a strange place, must play some sort of part. Then Dr Fedorenko suggested a sleeping pill, which after taking it doesn’t seem to make us too drowsy, then [gone]! Great stuff, slept right through to 9.30am, when normally I’ve been hit by the light coming up at 6am.

That apprehension.

I actually have none, none at all, it’s all done at a lovely pace here, talking to others who are a week or two ahead of me, don’t look ‘ill’ considering they’ve had a large blast of Chemotherapy, they have smiles on their faces. and are taking it all their stride, with ease it seems. Dr Fedorenko has spoken before about long refining his treatment, and I think as Chemo goes he’s nailed it. I haven’t heard of one person here saying they’ve needed to vomit.

As I’ve said before, I’m totally sure I’ve made the right choice coming to Russia. I couldn’t be more relaxed, fed and well looked after.

Tonight will be my last two jabs of the stem cell stimulants, lets hope they’ve all done their job. Then tomorrow, I get a catheter placed in my neck line, this is for easy drug administration, but more importantly to filter my blood for those stem cell troopers.

Video TimeI run a little known YouTube channel called ‘The Palm Off‘, something I do at weekends, it keeps me busy whilst I’m indoors. Naturally they’re probably not sure where I’ve gone, my viewers have been so supportive since I told them of my MS, so I’ve done this video to keep them updated and to tell my story. Enjoy!

So interesting to hear of this major journey that you are on. I wish you all the luck and will keep up with your progress. Am thinking of doing the same even though I have had this for nearly 30 years! Good luck.